Google Glass Coming This Year, Will Be iPhone Compatible

By Jim Karpenon Mon, 02/25/2013

Excitement is mounting for the release of Google Glass: "augmented reality" eyewear, which superimposes information in your field of vision. The Google Glass headset connects with your smartphone to receive data, displays a screen just above your field of view, and responds to voice commands.

Let's say you’re walking down the street wearing this gadget, and you get a text message or an alert. The message will appear, hovering in your field of vision. You control the functions of Google Glass just by speaking. A built-in camera lets you use Google Glass to take a photo or shoot a video of whatever it is you're looking at. You can search the Internet or get the weather forecast just by asking Google Glass a question. An augmented reality map of the road ahead shows you what direction to go.

The buzz circulating the Internet during the weekend is that Google Glass is ahead of schedule, and will be available in 2013. It is said to be compatible with both the iPhone and Android phones and will communicate via Bluetooth.

The demo video below gives an idea of the scope of what Google Glass can do:

The editor of The Vergetried Google Glass, and says the experience is very much like that shown in the video, though the voice control is a work in progress, and you need a fast data connection for best results.

So how much will Google Glass cost? According to a report Friday on CNET: $1,500. Yikes. But what's important here is that wearable computing is finally happening, with the release of Pebble watch earlier this year and now the coming of Google Glass. This makes the rumors of an iWatch more believable, and the appearance of a wearable device from Apple more likely.

Jim Karpen holds a Ph.D. in literature and writing, and has a love of gizmos. His doctoral dissertation focused on the revolutionary consequences of digital technologies and anticipated some of the developments taking place in the industry today. Jim has been writing about the Internet and technology since 1994 and has been using Apple's visionary products for decades.